My complaint is this: a I can have a select multiple with a
normal name,
which is allowed by every spec, but PHP requires me to use []
in order
to properly retrieve the values.

I really don't understand the problem with this -- in fact, I find it
quite useful to distinguish inputs which may have only 1 value from
those which may be multi-valued. And it all depends on what you mean by
a "normal" name, of course -- no current (X)HTML spec disallows [] as
part of a name attribute, so in that sense a name containing them could
be seen as perfectly normal...!! ;) ;)
Can you explain why this is such a hang-up for you, as I haven't seen
anything in what you've posted so far to convince me it's any kind of
problem?
Cheers!
Mike

I can't speak for the OP, but I've always thought it somewhat odd. An
HTML form should be able to work correctly without modification
regardless of the language that receives the input. As it is, it makes
the HTML for a form implementation specific. You might be able to use
ASP correctly process a form originally targeted toward PHP, but you
could not similarly take a form designed for ASP and process it with
PHP without modification.
It also impacts the use of client-side JavaScript. Consider a simple
page like this:
sundae.html
==============
<html>
<head>
<script>
function countToppings() {
var totalToppings = 0;
var toppings = document.sundae.toppings;

// To work with PHP, the above line would have to be
changed:
// var toppings =
document.sundae.elements['toppings[]'];

string of
"?toppings=sprinkles&toppings=nuts&toppings=fudge&toppings=caramel&toppings=strawberries".

In the grand scheme of things, these are just subtleties that can
easily be handled. Since my first major experience with a web language
was PHP (after a very brief dabble in PERL) before I took a turn at
ASP/VBScript, I'm used to it and it isn't a "hang-up" for me. But
something about it never seemed quite "right" to me either. :-)
Andrew

Andrew captured perfectly what I meant.

"?toppings=sprinkles&toppings=nuts&toppings=fudge&toppings=caramel&toppings=strawberries"
is a valid querystring that php sort of fail at understanding.

I have nothing against supplying a string/array clarification system
based on the name with/without the square brackets, but short of
manually parsing the querystring/request headers, I have no alternative
to that.

Also my original problem came when I had to parse the results of a form
I did NOT originally create, not to mention forms from external sources...

I don't hate PHP and I don't want to throw off people who like the []
system, just give me an alternative with a small overhead. :P